{"id":5924,"date":"2009-01-01T21:47:24","date_gmt":"2009-01-02T05:47:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lee.org\/blog\/?p=5924"},"modified":"2021-05-03T22:28:42","modified_gmt":"2021-05-04T05:28:42","slug":"cinema","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lee.org\/blog\/2009\/01\/01\/cinema\/","title":{"rendered":"Cinema"},"content":{"rendered":"

This was originally a “page” on my blog that I updated from time to time. But I like using the chronological format of a blog better now. Be sure to check out the Reading, Watching, Listening category<\/a> of this blog!<\/p>\n

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(4-11-08) Caught Jerome Bixby’s The Man From Earth<\/strong>. Enjoyable<\/p>\n

(4-2-08) Saw Being There<\/strong>. I absolutely loved it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

(3-29-08)I’ve been perseverating on the movie Fearless for a while. I hadn’t seen it in years so I rented it with Charlotte. I considered for a long while exactly -why- I was so engrossed with the film. It’s that life-changing moment, such a change is, in part, put upon the character and part of it comes from within. I took a look at some other movies and found that awakening-moment in a lot of them.<\/p>\n

Fearless<\/strong> – 1993 – Max knows the plane is going to crash, he looks out the window to see a blinding reflection of sunlight on the plane and realizes that he isn’t afraid.The Matrix<\/strong> – Neo is shot at by the agents, he raises his hand serenely and says “No”.<\/p>\n

Run Lola Run<\/strong> – Lola is lying face up, dying on the street, befuddled at how the day could have ended up going so poorly. She decides what “has to be done” and says “Stop.” The day begins again.<\/p>\n

Ratatouille<\/strong> – 2007- (1:36:27) Anton Ego tastes the Ratatouille Remy made. The experience throws him forcefully back to a moment in his childhood. The wheels on his busted bike still spinning, he comes home nearly in tears and his mother serves him the greatest comfort-food a boy could ever have.<\/p>\n

L.A. Story<\/strong> – 1991 – Quoting the characters:<\/p>\n

Sara: And if I were to go?
\nHarris: All I know is, on the day your plane was to leave, if I had the power, I would turn the winds around, I would roll in the fog, I would bring in storms, I would change the polarity of the earth so compasses couldn’t work, so your plane couldn’t take off.<\/p>\n

That isn’t the moment. The moment is when it actually happens.<\/p>\n

Eraserhead<\/strong> – He is staring at the murmuring radiator.<\/p>\n

Waiting for Godot<\/strong> – This from the script, the last lines in the play:<\/p>\n

VLADIMIR:
\nWell? Shall we go?
\nESTRAGON:
\nYes, let’s go.
\n They do not move.<\/em><\/p>\n

Henry V<\/strong> -1989 – The St Crispin’s Day speech<\/p>\n

Groundhog Day<\/strong> – it’s hard to tell… I suppose the entire movie was about that realization moment.<\/p>\n

Koyaanisqatsi<\/strong> – There is a crowded escalator, people are decending, the music is… well, the music is Phillip Glass, and I make eye contact with one person in the throng.
\nMovie Reviews<\/strong>3-22-05: Run Lola Run <\/strong>\"\" is a beautiful film. This is the first action movie I’ve ever seen who’s main focus was playing with determinism. There is a moment in the film that is quite comparable to the brilliant moment in The Matrix (before all those other Matrix movies ruined it) after Neo is shot, he stands up again and says, “No” to the rain of bullets coming at him. But this movie is far more direct. Far more simple. It’s about love causing transcendence.<\/p>\n

8-9-03: Monsters Inc.<\/strong> Why didn’t someone command me to see this movie?! I laughed out loud for an hour and a half! The details bedazzled me (did you pause the movie to read the headlines of the newspaper Roz was reading?), the animation rocked, the story warmed my heart and was tight and…. and …. gush gush gush. Wow. I’m in awe of the completeness of this zany world they created. Thank you, Pixar people, Disney people!<\/p>\n

3-3-03: Donnie Darko<\/strong> is an incredible movie. I found it much more interesting the second time through, with the Director’s commentary turned on. Director commentary tracks can really change and expand the way the viewer sees a movie!<\/p>\n

2-24-03 Princess Mononoke<\/strong>. I’ve said in the past that I’d like to see more films where the line between good guys and bad guys isn’t so distinct. Where it’s not as simple as good vs. evil, good wins, fade to black. I recall being very impressed with Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven several years ago. Well, Princess Mononoke pretty much freaked me out because it struck so hard at that chord, my head is all a-jumble. It’s set me off kilter and it saddens me. The forces at work in this world are stronger than most of the characters that are led by them. Everyone is led by destiny, or vendetta, or instinct, or honor, or rank. And most of the time, their motivation is their Achilles heel. Furthermore, the forces at play are ones that, at their most fundamental level, must tear and destroy their opposing forces. Never mind the finale music at the end of this movie, each surviving character…. or to put it more appropriately… each of the forces that we saw at the beginning of the film is just as ready to tear the throat out of anyone else that would oppose them.<\/p>\n

“When the forest has been cleared and the wolves wiped out, this place will be the richest land in the world.” Lady Eboshi. And to do that, she has to get her team of leper engineers to design the best rifle possible to kill the very Spirit of the forest (and anyone else that would oppose her) and set ambush for an army of boars attacking because she had poisoned their god. And she’s just one of the amoral lead players in this film.<\/p>\n

“We are not trying to solve global problems with this film. There can be no happy ending to the war between the rampaging forest gods and humanity. But even in the midst of hatred and slaughter, there is still much to live for. Wonderful encounters and beautiful things still exist.”–Miyazaki, in a statement quoted in PRINCESS MONONOKE: THE ART AND MAKING OF JAPAN’S MOST POPULAR FILM OF ALL TIME<\/p>\n

2-15-03: Notes…<\/strong> I find that I really appreciate media with absurdist elements. The TV show Scrubs is a good example… It’s a mostly realistic drama, but the viewers get a humorous, absurdist slant on character motivations. The characters sometimes say EXACTLY what they are thinking instead of just what a real person would say. The show then keeps it’s feet on the ground by having the other characters respond (for the most part) to what the original speaker meant to say, instead of what we all actually heard. We get a window on their id.<\/p>\n

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Want to watch a good movie? Find one at the IMDB Top Rated Films list<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The following lists don’t necessarily represent films that I think are
\n“good”, they are about films I think are “important”. Films
\nthat have changed the way I look at the world include:Major effect<\/strong><\/p>\n